Thirty-five Hillsdale College students spent their spring break evenings sleeping on the floor at Hillsdale Free Methodist Church and their mornings doing service projects in the community.
The students split into teams, visited eight philanthropic centers in Hillsdale, as well as the homes of several needy families by the end of the week. Students also hosted a vacation Bible school for local children at Free Methodist.
The trip was the result of a conversation between freshman Kathryn Wong and junior Shelly Peters, Wong’s Resident Assistant in Olds Residence. They started talking early in the year about the possibility of a mission trip over spring break. Both thought of Hillsdale during the Rebirth of Liberty and Learning Campaign.
“The gala made us both reflect on the difference between the wealth of the college and the poverty of the local community,” Wong said. “We wanted to build a bridge between the college and the city of Hillsdale.”
Wong and Peters both believed in the value of mission trips, shortterm and long. Both grew up in families that emphasized the importance of serving others. Though Wong spent a gap year working at an orphanage in Haiti, and served in Detroit and Ann Arbor, she had limited experience with rural missions.
“When I originally came to Hillsdale, I was really hoping for opportunities to serve in the community,” Wong said. “I wanted my heart to break for this community in the way that God’s does.”
Freshman Griffith Brown was one of the students on the trip. He said that, for him, one of the most memorable projects was serving at Hillsdale County’s Salvation Army food distribution center.
“I got to know some of the people of Hillsdale on a deeper level,” Brown said. “It was just so different from our college bubble—humbling and it put things into perspective.”
Brown said his attitude toward the other students changed, too.
“Eddy and David—I knew zero about them before this, and now I’ve been talking to them every day since,” Brown said.
Wong agreed that the friendships gained during the trip were one of the best things about it. Junior Brooke Baker said that her favorite part of the trip was cleaning the house of a married couple.
“The funniest thing was that the guy asked us over and over again, ‘Do ya’ll enjoy doing this?’ Through that, we got to explain why we were there and explain the gospel,” Baker said.
When the team was finished, the couple invited the group back for dinner.
Director of Health Services Brock Lutz was invited as a team leader for the week. He felt the trip was a great success in that the students developed hearts for the people of Hillsdale and learned to see them with fresh eyes.
“I’ve been encouraging any students I talk to, telling them, ‘You have to do this next year if you
have the chance,’” Lutz said.
Lutz appreciated that he and students got to stay local for the week.
“The great thing about this is that you can do it intensively for a week, but you can continue to cultivate some of those relationships,” Lutz said.
